By slowgs2001, Posted October 9, 2014

By Hillguitar, Posted October 10, 2014

Picked up my 15 CRF450 2 weeks ago, and put about an hr on it, before getting it ready to race the last 3 races of the year here these next few weeks. I have waited 6 years for Honda to build this bike! At 1st I thought I made a mistake buying it, but after about 1/2 hr of breaking in the chassis/suspension, and finishing breaking in the motor, I started to really get on it, and fell in love with the bike, bone stock, right out of the crate. The motor, though not as fast as the bike I am coming off of (an 08 CRF 450, full Yosh national motor with an Ice Cube 498 cylinder w 70 RWHP, and RG3 A kit suspension) feels awesome, lots of very smooth power bottom to upper mid, though it does seem to flatten off a bit in the upper revs, nothing that a pipe and remap shouldnt fix. I have only ridden it in the standard map, but am going to practice this Sat at the track that has the race this weekend, so I can familiarize myself with it more, see what the aggressive and soft modes feel like and set up the suspension, which for stock feels amazing (I did not even set the air pressure in the forks as I did not have a pump on hand!). This bike handles amazing, and falls into ruts, flows through turns and can literally turn circles around my 08, it will also change lines mid turn with no effort whatsoever. It is super confidence inspiring!!! It feels pretty stable but probably not the most stable bike out there, but the steering damper on this bike feels a lot better than the 08s which probably needs a rebuild at the moment. The new bike also feels like its 50 lbs lighter than the 08! I told all my buddies that this bike should win every shootout in every mag, as it is almost perfect, and by just doing what 99% of racers do, by adding a pipe (Don @ Rocket is finalizing the pipe for this bike right now) and remapping it, the bike will be close to perfection without dumping a ton of cash in it! I have ridden all the 14 450s, and this bike is better than all of them!